The present invention relates to access and rendering of information in a computer system. More particularly, the present invention relates to presentation of data based on voice input from a user.
Many computer interfaces are based on computer driven interactions in which the user must follow an execution flow set by the computer or learn one or more commands exposed by the computer. In other words, most computer interfaces do not adapt to the manner in which the user wishes to interact with the computer, but instead force the user to interact through a specific set of interfaces.
Advances in computer/user interfaces have allowed users to interact with a computer through voice commands. Voice portals such as through the use of Voice XML (voice extensible mark-up language) have been advanced to allow internet content to be accessed using voice input. In this architecture, a document server (for example, a web server) processes requests from a client through a Voice XML interpreter. The web server can produce Voice XML documents and replies, which are processed by the Voice XML interpreter and rendered audibly to the user. Using specified voice commands through voice recognition, the user can navigate the web and listen to data audibly rendered.
However, many applications that present data to a user, for example driving directions, traffic reports, weather reports and movie schedules, are not particularly user friendly. In particular, the applications have difficulty rendering portions of information that have previously been rendered or portions of structured information stored in a table. For example, various services offer driving directions, but do so in one extended reading to the user, or in predetermined steps. As a result, users may need to write down all of driving directions, or continue to replay the complete driving directions, or the predetermined steps, in an attempt to memorize the relevant information. Both of these situations are undesirable in many circumstances.
Accordingly, there is a need to access and render portions of data with more flexibility. Such a system or method of rendering would be easier to use by being more natural to the user.